Daily Devotions from The Word Of God… From the heart of Ed Algreen

Posts tagged ‘Care’

Bible Text:5 I wish you would just stop talking; then you would really be wise!6 Listen to my argument, and hear the pleading of my lips.

OBSERVATION: For those considering a visit to a sick friend, a shut-in or hospitalized, I would challenge you today with the words of Job, please don’t fill the room with chatter but listen to the person. You are visiting to help them feel better, this might very well be best served by listening to them. This reminds me of our times with God, is that time spent mostly allowing yourself time to unload, or do you give yourself time to listen to God?

APPLICATION: Ever have someone visit you and they don’t stop talking long enough for you to get a word in about how you are really feeling? Frustrating, isn’t it? I’ve been on both sides, so I believe I can identify with Job’s friends and with Job. As the visitor, we tend to feel like it is our responsibility to visit and make the person feel better. So we gather information about the person, then we either build up a wall of defense, just in case they decide to tear us apart, or we load up our minds with what we think they need mentally to help them feel better. As the sick or hurting person, Job in this case, we need someone that we can talk with and possibly identify with us. So if the visitor would just listen and nod their head occasionally to show they are listening or identifying with us, we would feel like we are not alone in our struggle. The last thing we need is a visitor, friend, pastor, elder or deacon, to visit and beat up on us about what we should have done, or how another church member never overcame the illness that they had similar to ours. We don’t want false hope, because although sick, we can quickly see through lies or false pretenses. Fortunately Job listened to all his friends had to say, but now he is lashing back at them. A visit to the unknown, and this would include a visit to a friend or fellow church member, is like walking into the unknown. Pray and ask God for wisdom, a listening ear and a kind word to encourage the person with. Remember, the sick person has been shut up in a room all day and needs someone to just listen to all they’ve been thinking about. Ask God to take away your desire to make them feel better with unending talk. There may be stuff the sick person would lay on the visitor that they want you to pray for and possibly help them find ways to deal with, like family matters or unresolved differences or best of all, to know Jesus personally! If we don’t listen, we will leave without knowing the heart of the one we visited!

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, in Your precious and wonderful name, I ask that You humble us to listen more and speak less. You are the designer and maker of each person, so You know how prone we are to build ourselves up and show off our knowledge and our experiences, yet You placed us here on earth to worship and praise You, and to be a blessing to others. Please help us to get off our ‘soap boxes’ and to show humility in all things, like You did, especially in our dealings with others. Yes, we may have something important to add to a conversation, but I know that we need to be more like You and place You at the very top, or leader of all things, then place others before ourselves. No matter how uneducated the other person is, they are a valued child of our King, please help us to always bear that in mind and learn from them and their experiences. As You lead us with the right words to say, may we be obedient and loving in sharing, so that You may ultimately receive honor and praise from all involved. We can only accomplish this with Your guidance and Your help dear Lord, so I ask this in Your powerful, yet loving name, Jesus my Lord. AMEN!

FOOTNOTE:There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog might indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Wordand read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Sebring, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you atBible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

May I encourage you to get your spiritual ‘Nuggets’ to start your day off right? Pretty amazing that our awesome God would consider feeding even us with His Word! May I encourage you to read the whole devotional, and look for a blessing, friend!………

Today’s Bible Reference: Job 8:5–7Today’s Bible Text: 5 But if you pray to God and seek the favor of the Almighty, 6 and if you are pure and live with integrity, he will surely rise up and restore your happy home. 7 And though you started with little, you will end with much. The Bible Translation:New Living Translation (NLT)

My Take Away: In reading the encouraging words from Job’s friend, Bildad, I believe that God gave me more wisdom to encourage and help those who have come through the past few years of discouragement due to losses – jobs, homes, families, vehicles, etc. For those who were blessed to keep their jobs, and therefore hang on to those things that are precious to us, it may be challenging for us to identify with these friends and/or family. Praise God, His Word is so applicable for every aspect of life, therefore I thank Him for directing me to this passage today and I am hoping this might especially encourage those folk who may have felt much like Job did, after losing everything. I am also hoping that this might also help those of us that God has chosen to walk alongside these individuals to encourage, and/or lift up, and/or restore, and/or redirect. For those that have, it is easy to say to those who have fallen: “Come on pull your socks up and move on with life” however, unless we can do that from a heart of love, or a heart burdened by God to really help that individual, our intended ‘encouragement’ may not be accepted as we hoped it would. Notice that Bildad pointed Job to God and gave him specific instruction on how to draw closer to God – the source of his help. This applied to Job, and could also apply to our friends seeking to overcome months and months of discouragement with loss of hope for the future. Here are tips given to Job by Bildad that I want you to consider:

Pray to God – Though earthly things may seem dismal, there is One who cares about every concern of His children. Pray, pray, pray to God;

Seek favor from the Almighty – God knows what you’re going through, but just as Jesus asked the blind man what was he seeking from Jesus, I believe He wants to hear your heart. Plead your case before Him. Ask Him for what you need in your life and the life of your family;

Put your purity and integrity in check – Our God is holy and righteous and pure. Please follow His ways and live your life in all purity and with full integrity as a child of God. Don’t let the circumstances of this earth interfere with the relationship you have with your Father. Live in such purity and integrity that the world will have no idea what you are presently going through. Even on the cross, and after suffering much cruelty and hurt, yet Jesus blessed the criminal hanging next to Him. Let that be your example friend.

Like Job, I believe that you too can see happiness restored to your home and your financial worth restored. My God loves you just as much as He loved Job. Let me encourage you to live like Job did, and see how God reacts to your dilemma!

Prayer:Lord Jesus, I have no news for You today that You are not already fully aware of. Many of my readers and I have friends and/or family who are hurting because of the results of bad deals dealt to them by today’s society and perhaps bad choices by them. These are Your precious kids that You sacrificed Your life for at Calvary, so I beg You to touch them in a very special way today dear Lord. I dare not ask You how or why, but merely to trust in Your goodness to be the loving and caring God that You are. We will praise You tirelessly for Your goodness to these that we love and care about, AMEN!

Footnote:If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!

THE HOLY BIBLE (The Contemporary English Version – John 1:40-41; 43-45): 40 One of the two men who had heard John and had gone with Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, “We have found the Messiah!” The Hebrew word “Messiah” means the same as the Greek word “Christ.” 43-44 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. There he met Philip, who was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter. Jesus said to Philip, “Come with me.” 45 Philip then found Nathanael and said, “We have found the one that Moses and the Prophets wrote about. He is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

THOUGHTS: As I read this passage this morning I was moved to compassion for all my family members who may not know the Lord, and for my friends that I come into contact with on a daily basis. Perhaps you didn’t get it the first time reading through the above verses. Check this out: Andrew was moved by the preaching of John and he followed Jesus – the one of whom John spoke. In other words, it’s like Andrew was at church last weekend and accepted Jesus as Lord after hearing the Word of God proclaimed! The first thing that Andrew did, was to find his brother, Simon Peter. Friend, who did you think of the day that you got saved? Would you be ashamed to face Jesus and declare to Him that your family and friends didn’t make it into heaven because you were too busy, or didn’t care enough to tell them about the Lord? Then in verse 44 Jesus called Philip, and immediately he went to find his buddy Nathanael. Friends, who do you care enough about that you would want them to come in out of the rain; be protected from the onslaught of a huge natural disaster like a hurricane or an earthquake? Who would you morn over if you knew that they were headed for a destructive fire and you saw it up ahead but didn’t opt to warn them about it? May I humbly say that this is exactly what your family and friends are facing, if you don’t become a ‘Andrew’ or ‘Philip’ and convince them of the saving grace of Jesus Christ? You have the ‘key’ friend – the answer to help them avoid the depths of hell. Do you care enough to share the answer with them? What’s stopping you? You may fear that they might reject your offer and perhaps laugh at you? And that may be a reality, but will God accuse you of not even trying, or loving them enough to care about their eternal future?

PRAYER: Father God, I believe that often we don’t relate ‘neglect’ or ‘priorities’ as being uncaring or unloving, because we use buzz words like: too busy; fear of rejection; they just won’t listen to me; they are a total atheist; or they have everything they need and refuse to listen to anything about God. I pray that You will open our hearts today Lord, to make decisions based on our relationship with You and Your call on our heart for action, not what we suspect the other person may say, or what they might think, or what they believe, or their ethnicity or proclaimed beliefs are. I pray that when the day comes for us to face You in judgment, that we can honestly and boldly declare like Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. This can only be accomplished with our hand in the hand of the One who calmed the waters, who died on Calvary for our sins, and showed love beyond anything we can think of imagine. I ask all this in that very name, the name of Jesus, AMEN!

FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or read through Biblical truths on How To Know Jesus, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to www.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!